I've already posted and talked about how I didn't enjoy the 8 year exile plot enough already but I'll just point out that with your comment, another reason this would've been that much better is because hypothetically speaking, just make-believe and pretend that Christopher Nolan wanted to come back (or the next director wanted to connect his films loosely) to these movies it leaves open so many possibilities about what could happen in those 8 years as Batman if they chose a prequel if you want to call it that. We all know Nolan is pretty non-linear anyways so yeah. Not to mention the fact that by the time we reached Bruce in TDKR, he'd be a hobbled 40 year-old man. Then it's like, damn, Bruce has been busy. I wonder what's been happening during all those years?

Gah, I'm trying to not let it irritate me so much because it's still the best comic book trilogy but what the hell, I can't get over how much that plot bugged the heck out of me.

Nobody would have believed Nolan would retire Batman for 8 years after TDK unless we heard it from him. It's too stupid to be believed unless you've seen the proof for yourself.